Lamar Alexander urges NLRB members to resign

Labor rulings invalid after court decision, Alexander says

Monday, January 28, 2013

photo Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., today called upon two members of the National Labor Relations Board "to resign immediately, pack their bags and go home" after a federal appellate court last week ruled their presidential appointments were illegal.

In a speech on the Senate floor this afternoon, Alexander said the decision Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. striking down Obama's recess appointments left the NLRB without a legal quorum and calls into question all of the labor board's decisions last year. The three-judge panel said last week that President Obama improperly claimed to have made a recess appointment of Democrats Richard Griffin and Sharon Block and Republican Terence Flynn a year ago. Flynn resigned later in the year, but Griffin and Block have remained on the board.

The court said the Senate, which previously balked at approving the president's NLRB nominations, was not actually in recess in January 2012 as Obama claimed when he made the NLRB appointments without Senate confirmation.

Since then, the NLRB has issued 219 decisions. But Alexander claimed those decisions are no longer binding.

"All of these are invalid because two of the member on the NLRB were unconstitutionally appointed," he said.

The NLRB chairman, Mark Gaston Pearce, said the labor board will continue to meet and issue opinions. But Alexander said the NLRB board cannot issue binding decisions after the court ruling.

"A new sign should go up, "Help wanted, nominations accepted,'" Alexander said.